ul, as you say, sir," returned the Widow Martin;
"and for that reason I should like to know if there isn't a will. I _know_
the deacon set store by me, and I can hardly think he has departed for
another world without bethinking him of his cousin Jenny, and of her
widowhood."

"I'm afraid he has, Mrs. Martin--really afraid he has. I can hear of no
will. The doctor says he doubts if the deacon could ever muster courage to
write anything about his own death, and that he has never heard of any
will. I understand Mary, that she has no knowledge of any will; and I do
not know where else to turn, in order to inquire. Rev. Mr. Whittle thinks
there is a will, I ought to say."

"There _must be_ a will," returned the parson, who was on the ground again
early, and on this very errand; "I feel certain of that from the many
conversations I have held with the deceased. It is not a month since I
spoke to him of divers repairs that were necessary to each and all of the
parish buildings, including the parsonage. He agreed to every word I
said--admitted that we could not get on another winter without a new
horse-shed; and that the east end of the parsonage ought to be shingled
this coming summer."

"All of which may be; very true, parson, without the deacon's making a
will," quietly, and we may now add _patiently_, observed Mr. Job.

"I don't think so," returned the minister, with a warmth that might have
been deemed indiscreet, did it not relate to the horse-shed, the
parsonage, and the meeting-house, all of which were public property,
rather than to anything in which he had a more direct legal interest. "A
pious member of the church would hardly hold out the hopes that Deacon
Pratt has held out to me, for more than two years without meaning to make
his words good in the end. I think all will agree with me in that
opinion."

"Did the deacon, then, go so far as to promise to do any thing?" asked Mr.
Job, a little timidly; for he was by no means sure the answer might not be
in the affirmative, in which case he anticipated the worst.

"Perhaps not," answered Minister Whittle, too conscientious to tell a
Downright lie, though sorely tempted so to do. "But a man may promise
indirectly, as well as directly. When I have a thing much at heart, and
converse often about it with a person who can grant all I wish, and that
person, listens as attentively as I could wish him to do, I regard that as
a promise; and, in church matters, one of a ver